Identifying Blue Large Amplitude Pulsators from Gaia DR2 & ZTF DR3

TL;DR

This study develops a method to identify Blue Large Amplitude Pulsators (BLAPs) in the Galactic plane using Gaia and ZTF data, leading to the discovery of new candidate BLAPs and follow-up spectral analysis.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach combining Gaia and ZTF data to efficiently find BLAP candidates in the Galactic plane, expanding the known population.

Findings

Identified 22 candidate BLAPs from 98 short-period variables.

Spectroscopic follow-up classified 1 as a confirmed BLAP.

Proposed 9 additional candidates for future detailed study.

Abstract

Blue Large Amplitude Pulsators (BLAPs) are hot, subluminous stars undergoing rapid variability with periods of under 60 mins. They have been linked with the early stages of pre-white dwarfs and hot subdwarfs. They are a rare class of variable star due to their evolutionary history within interacting binary systems and the short timescales relative to their lifetime in which they are pulsationally unstable. All currently known BLAPs are relatively faint (15-19 mag) and are located in the Galactic plane. These stars have intrinsically blue colours but the large interstellar extinction in the Galactic plane prevents them from swift identification using colour-based selection criteria. In this paper, we correct the Gaia $G$-band apparent magnitude and $G_{\mathrm{BP}}-G_{\mathrm{RP}}$ colours of 89.6 million sources brighter than 19 mag in the Galactic plane with good quality photometry combined with supplementary all-sky data totalling 162.3 million sources. Selecting sources with colours consistent with the known population of BLAPs and performing a cross-match with the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) DR3, we identify 98 short period candidate variables. Manual inspection of the period-folded light curves reveals 22 candidate BLAPs. Of these targets, 6 are consistent with the observed periods and light curves of the known BLAPs, 10 are within the theoretical period range of BLAPs and 6 are candidate high-gravity BLAPs. We present follow-up spectra of 21 of these candidate sources and propose to classify 1 of them as a BLAP, and tentatively assign an additional 8 of them as BLAPs for future population studies.